+ Jesus breakfasts with seven disciples. +

+ Our Lord appears on Mount Thabor. +

Mystic Monk Coffee - from the Traditional Carmelite Monks of Wyoming

Sunday, October 31, 2010

"Isti sunt... These are they who while yet they lived in the flesh,planted the Church in their own blood;they drank of the Lord's cup,and became the friends of God... et amici Dei facti sunt."

[Responsory from Matins]

What a privilege it is to live in the House of God,where, on theeve of All-Hallow-Mas, the Feast of All Saints,we have time to spend a few moments before the holy relics put forth for veneration in the chapel for the feast-day.

In the darkness of the night and the howling of the wind,far away from the world and all that one finds there on such a night as this,how wonderful to spend a few moments in the company of these our ancestors in the faith who have chosen to guide their relics to our island home...the martyrs who died so brutally centuries ago, the confessors, the doctors who enlightened the Church in every province of the ancient world, the virgins and widows,the monks and nuns, who loved God and left the world before we were even thought of, before we were even born. Relics from every clime and every land.

Our Lord the King of Glory, crowns one of His martyr saints.

As the Feast of Our Lord Jesus Christ the King wanes and that of all the Saints dawns we remember you and pray for you and your intentions. The holy Divine Office tells us that Our Lord crowned His saints with glory and honour and madest them to have dominion over the works of His hands.

Whatever your intentions, your sufferings, your pains and hurts,may the holy ones of Godwho repose on our islandhelp you,comfort youwith that dominion given to them and lead you to that Heavenly Crown which Our Lord has promised to them that love Him.

The Crown Above

"Venite, exultamus...O come let us worship the Lord, the King of kings,for He is Himself the Crown of all the Saints... corona Sanctorum omnium."

Friday, October 15, 2010

(Click on the picture to see it biggerand to download it to your desktop.)

Throughout the year it has been our joy to provide many, many relics of St Gerard for mothers in distress who ask for them.

Today we would like to wish those mothers and expectant mothers- and moreover to all aspiring mothers -

A most blessed Feastday!

Have confidence, St Gerard has and continues to work miracles in favour of those who seek to honour Our Blessed Lord by bringing children into this world.

If you are or know of a mother in distress with her infant, either born or unborn, or who is struggling to conceive, do not despair.

Many thousands of mothers in the last two-and-a-half centuries have found timely aid and relief through the intercession of the Mother’s Saint — St Gerard Majella.

So many couples have been given the most precious gift of a child through his prayers.

In this age, when the sanctity of life is attacked on all fronts, it is a privilege for the Sons of the Most Holy Redeemer to provide the relic of St Gerard for any mother who requests one, or for whom one is requested.

Each relic of linen touched to a First Class relic of the Saint is wrapped in gold cloth with a Miniature of Our Mother of Perpetual Succour and sewn into a ribbon belt in order to facilitate its being worn. Each relic-belt is hand made by a devoted soul.

To request prayers or a relic please either send us your request and address through the contact button on this blog or address yourself to:

Relics are provided at no charge, but, if you are able, something to help cover the cost of postage is appreciated. Our relics are made with Ecclesiastical approbation.

Prayer for Motherhood

O good St Gerard,powerful Intercessor before God and Wonderworker of our day,I call upon thee and seek thy aid.Thou who on earth didst always fulfil God’s designs,help me to do the Holy Will of God.Beseech the Master of Life,from Whom all paternity proceedeth, to render me fruitful in offspring,that I may raise up children to God in this lifeand heirs to the Kingdom of His Glory in the world to come. Amen.

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Regular readers of this blog will have noticed that comments on the blog have been turned off because of abusive statements. Unfortunately this sort of behaviour by a few bitter Catholics is not limited to this blog, but plagues the Catholic blogosphere to such an extent that it is even encouraged on certain Traditional Catholic sites. The lack of Christian charity, the constant bickering, name-calling, slander, detraction and calumny has reached truly epidemic proportions on some tabloid-like sedevacantist sites (we choose to not name them rather than give them cheap publicity) and this poison is then digested and regurgitated in other traditional Catholic sites. One Sedevacantist site that masquerades as Catholic and which is run by anonymous priests, could easily teach Jack Chick a thing or two about spreading lies and hatred about the Pope and the Catholic church. The sickening deluge of vitriolic bile poured forth in some Catholic forums on a daily basis is truly reminiscent of the vomitoriums of ancient Rome.

G. K. Chesterton

The great Catholic writers of yesteryear Belloc and Chesterton were able to get their point of view across with wit and humour. Being civil in our speech is something most of us try to practice in our daily dealings with our neighbour. But the anonymity available on the internet today has given birth to legions of keyboard warriors and pamphlet-theologians who are self-styled periti on every subject under the sun. No one is safe from their withering tongues, not even the Holy Father. Expressions like heretic, apostate etc... come freely without even the slightest attempt to check their rancour. If you must indulge in venting your spleen, have the courage to face up to the consequences of your comments and put your name, email address or your photograph to your comment or post. Hiding behind a pseudonym in these cases is sheer cowardice.

Whatever happened to charity in our speech? “Learn of me, because I am meek and humble of heart” says our Lord. [St. Mt. XI:19] Do we really think that there are no consequences to what we say on the internet? But I say unto you, that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall render an account for it in the day of judgment. [St.Mt XII:36]. Do we think that we are really helping anyone or converting souls by the use of bitter sarcasm and malicious words that are designed to wound rather than to edify? charge them before the Lord to avoid disputing about words, which does no good, but only ruins the hearers. [2 Tim:II:14]. Are we really proud of our words? Rejoicing that we have “won” the argument? He is proud, knowing nothing, but sick about questions and strifes of words; from which arise envies, contentions, blasphemies, evil suspicions. [1Tim:VI:4] But shun profane and vain babblings: for they grow much towards ungodliness. And their speech spreadeth like a canker... [2Tim:II:16,17]

It would perhaps be a good thing if the moderators on Catholic blogs and those who comment on them were aware of the gravity of the sin of Detraction and Calumny. The following is a summary of the Moral Theology of Dom. Prummer, O.P., on Detraction. A man has a right to his reputation in justice and no man’s reputation may be attacked without undue reason. Detraction (defamatio) may be defined as the unjust destruction of another’s reputation. It is the unjust revealing of a true hidden fault. Detraction may be divided as follows: Formal Detraction arises when one has the intention of harming another’s reputation and this is always a mortal sin. Material Detraction arises when one has some other intention. This may be allowable if there is sufficient reason, otherwise it is usually a venial sin, but could become mortal because of the gravity of the words used. Direct Detraction is when we reveal another’s faults: either by the accusation of a false crime, and this is called calumny, or by exaggerating a crime, by revealing a hidden crime, or by interpreting a good action as a bad one. Indirect Detraction is when we minimize another’s good qualities and this can take place by denying one’s good virtues, acts etc, by diminishing his good works, by silencing those who praise a man’s good qualities, by moderating our praise with a “but...”.

Calumny is detraction with the addition of a lie. While a lie by itself is a venial sin, Calumny has the same moral species as detraction. The lie in calumny has an aggravating circumstance only. The principle here is that unjust detraction is a mortal sin ex genere suo against justice and charity regardless if the detraction is true or not. This is proved from 1Cor: VI:10 and Romans 1:30.

The reason is that the more harm done to the neighbour, the greater is the sin; the greater the good destroyed, the more harm done. Reputation is a greater good than material possessions, the destruction of which can be a mortal sin in grave matter. Hence, a priori, so too with detraction. One needs to know that the greater the dignity of the person detracted, the greater is the offence. The more hearers there are, the more there are who are likely to repeat the detraction and hence greater will be the sin. With regards to Calumny, the intention is always malicious and hence calumny is always a mortal sin in grave matter.

We may indeed have the true faith; we may rightly be pleased with all the good works and prayers we offer up. But if we don’t have charity where does that leave us? St Paul tells us that if we speak with the tongues of men and angels and have not charity, we are become like sounding brass, like tinkling cymbals.[1Cor XIII:1] And right now the sound of brass and tinkling cymbals emanating from Catholic comment boxes and forums is simply deafening.

The red Letters painted on either side of theMother of Perpetual Succourare Greek abbreviations:ΜΡ forMatermeaningMother and ΘΥ for Theou meaning of God.

In the year 431the father of the Council of Ephesus,under the guidance of Pope St. Celestine,formally condemned the errors of Nestoriusand declared as Catholic faiththe doctrine that:The Blessed Virgin Mary,Who gave birth to Jesus,was trulythe Mother of God.

The Holy Mother of Godof Perpetual Succour.

Please honour the Holy Mother of Godby praying the followingfor the special intentionof the Sons of the Most Holy Redeemer.

Thursday, October 07, 2010

An example of Communicatio in sacris permittedto those who lived under tyranny in the Ottoman Empireis the Instruction of 6 August, 1764,from theCongregation of the Propaganda of the Faith.

A Christian family in the Ottoman Empire.(1898 - 1914)

The Instruction authorised the Apostolic Vicar of Aleppo,in Northern Syria,to allow the faithful, if in danger of persecution,to have their children baptized by schismatic or heretical priests,to marry before a non-Catholic minister,and to have him bury their dead.

The reason for this was that the Ottoman Empirerecognised only certain Non-Catholic communities of Christians.There was no protection for a minority of newly converted Catholics.

If they were not to be forced to become Muslimsthey had to have recognised certificates of Baptism and Marriage.Valid death certificates were also issued by the recognised religious leaders.

Therefore, these isolated Catholics were permittedBaptism, Marriage and Burial by Non-Catholics.

Pope Clement VIgave a very general permissionto Armenian priestswho had returned to the Catholic Churchto administer the sacraments among the schismatics,not in approval of their schism,- this is stated -but to lead them back to obedience to the true Church.

Sunday, October 03, 2010

In mid-August we welcomedMark Greaves from the Catholic Heraldwho came to write an article on the community.It was published last Friday, October 1st.

There were but two corrections we would make to the article.

1) It was not all the members of the monasterybut only the Monastery Council that read the FSSP studyand voted on the question of our reconciliation.

2) Fr. Bisig did not write to me what was reported in direct speech;but rather, in a very kind manner,he intimated that he wanted to be honest with us from the beginningand that for theological -and not polemical- reasonshe did not agree with me aboutthe non-schismatical character of our community.

It is very difficult to perfectly report every detailwhen writing an article for publication.

We thank Mark for his excellent articlethat reflects the community as to date it stands.

In 1244 Pope Innocent IV permitted the Dominican missionaries among the (Non-Catholic) Jacobites and Nestorians to share with them “in verbis, officio et cibo” (literally in words, offices and food; better english: in speech, in offices, in meals).

In 1245 he gave the same permission to Franciscan Missionaries. From the context it is obvious that the words “in officio” is are equivalent to “in sacris” (in sacred things).

The following Popes, Nicholas IV (1288), John XXII (1316-34), and Benedict XII (1334-42) gave the missionariesthe same permission many times as can be verified in the books of the Sources of the Codification of Oriental Canon Law published by the Vatican in 1943.